MERRIGONGX 2023 Brochure

MERRIGONGX is our annual artists’ program. It focuses on supporting artists to take creative risks.

MERRIGONGX places artists and their practice at the centre of our community. From in-house creative developments to full-blown public presentations of new work, and everything in between, MERRIGONGX provides independent artists with financial, technical, marketing and artistic resources. Join us for a year of exciting new productions, developments, and everything in between.

CONTENTS

MERRIGONGX PRODUCTIONS ............ 2 - 9

• ChaChi and The Sea of Tears by Neisha Murphy

• Optimal Stopping by Proper Motion and La Infinita Compañia.

• uNCOILEd eXposed by AUSTI. Dance and Physical Theatre

• Landed by Frumpus

DEVELOPMENT SHOWINGS .................... 10

• My Beautiful Man by Alana Valentine

OTHER SUPPORTED ARTISTS 12 - 15

• Bonnie Curtis

• The Corinthian Food Store

• Lucy Heffernan

• Emma Saunders

• Josh Hinton

• Vaguely Adjacent

• Kirli Saunders

• Ali Gordon

• Catherine McKinnon & Aunty Barbara Nicholson

• Rose Maher

• Ali Jane Smith

• Bobby Aazami

• Karen Cummings

• Lily Hayman & Joshua Lobb

• Malika Reese

• Susan Kennedy

• Tegan Ware

MADE FROM SCRATCH .................................. 16

93 CROWN – MERRIGONG’S INDEPENDENT ARTIST SPACE 17

SCWC / MERRIGONG PLAYWRIGHTS’ PROGRAM ........................ 18

RESERVE YOUR SPOT FOR FREE.

We want to make it easier to experience new works, so for events and showings in this brochure, there is no set ticket price. Instead, you simply reserve a spot, show up, then Pay What You Feel the performance is worth afterwards. Find out more on page 20.

ABOUT

Neisha Murphy

Neisha Murphy is a circus artist, variety entertainer, director, vagabond and video producer amongst many other roles. Affectionately known as ‘The Loveable Larrikin’ because of her ability to consistently push her creativity forward and perform unique feats with her trademark style, she was an Australian karate champion and Sportsperson of the Year at age 11, and obtained her black belt at 12 years old. She then discovered her love of theatre and circus and 20 years later, the rest is herstory. Her performance style blends a mix of physical skill and characterisation and her skills include clowning, comedy, juggling, slack rope. She is also known for performing a range of unique dare devil stunts.

Neisha was recently the recipient of The International Women’s Day Committee Award for Creativity.

“The inspiration initially for ChaChi and The Sea of Tears came out of my battle with grief after losing my mother to illness in 2014, combined with losing my creative identity and struggling through the early stages of the pandemic, which took me on a journey of growth and self-reflection. This work was born out of heartache and despair, but has now evolved into a beautiful landscape of rich physical expression and portrays the shared human experience of connection and maintaining hope, even in the darkest days.“

- Neisha Murphy

ChaChi and The Sea of Tears

By Neisha Murphy

Neisha Murphy combines clowning and storytelling in an action-packed show about facing your fears and finding light in the darkness – even in the biggest downpours. Full of slapstick comedy, hilarious antics, daring circus and the big time feels… oh, and don’t forget your brolly!

2 – 4 Mar

7.30pm

Main Auditorium | Wollongong Town Hall

INTIMATE THEATRE MODE

Approx. 1 hr (no interval)

Recommended for ages 12+

Reserve your spot at merrigong.com.au/merrigongx

Photo by Caz Nowaczyk / Exposure Arts

Proper Motion and La Infinita Compañía

Established by choreographer and dancer Lisa Maris McDonell during COVID lockdowns of 2020, Proper Motion was conceived to provide opportunity and visibility to regionally based dance artists and their projects. They aim to make world class work from a regional centre, giving audiences and communities from the Illawarra / Shoalhaven (and beyond) the opportunity to witness, experience and engage with contemporary dance making and performance.

La Infinita Compañía is directed by Mexican choreographers and producers Rodrigo González and Raúl Tamez. Despite being an independent project, the company has grown rapidly generating different platforms such as The International Contemporary Dance Festival of Mexico City, its own studio and a space for artistic residencies. The company has also developed different social projects with marginalised communities, utilising contemporary dance as a vehicle of expression.

“Optimal Stopping grew out of a promise made in 2018 between myself and La Infinita Compañia’s Raúl Tamez to work together on a project. After a few failed attempts to get something off the ground I contacted Raúl during the first lockdown in early 2020 with an idea to create a work that would only ever be rehearsed remotely, with the first time the work was performed in person to be witnessed by audiences (at the time of course not knowing when that would be).

Raúl and five of Mexico’s finest dancers attended via zoom over a number of weeks to learn the work alongside a group of professional dancers from Wollongong. Optimal Stopping sits somewhere between improvisation and choreography with the dancers following a set of instructions as a score. Essentially the audience will witness the dancers getting to know each other and the work during the performance while they respond to the space, the score and each other.”

- Lisa Maris McDonell

Optimal Stopping

By Proper Motion and La Infinita Compañia.

Two groups of dancers. One Dance. No Rehearsal. Optimal Stopping brings together two very different groups of dancers from opposite sides of the world, to meet and get to know each other as performers on stage. Without the benefit of hours of in-person rehearsal, we witness dancers use their finely-tuned instincts and superior skills in terms of navigating space, choreography and relationships in real time.

30 Mar – 1 Apr

7.30pm, with post-show Q&A

Main Auditorium | Wollongong Town Hall

INTIMATE THEATRE MODE

Approx. 1 hr 10 mins (no interval)

Recommended for ages 8+

Reserve your spot at merrigong.com.au/merrigongx

Photo by Children of the Revolution

ABOUT AUSTI. Dance and Physical Theatre

AUSTI. Dance and Physical Theatre (AUSTI.) is a developmental contemporary dance company, the first of its kind in the Illawarra. Helmed by Artistic Director, Michelle Maxwell, AUSTI. bridges the gap between full-time dance training, tertiary education and a professional career for young dancers trained in contemporary dance, ballet, physical theatre and improvisation.

“uNCOILEd eXposed provides emerging artists from diverse styles and backgrounds the time and space to conceive a new dance piece and present it as part of a fully staged performance season. This annual season began as a tribute to former student and dear friend of the company, Nicole Fitzsimons who tragically passed away at the age of 24, and as a platform for company dancers to cut their choreographic teeth. uNCOILEd was proudly revamped in 2022, to include opportunities for emerging and mid-career artists as part of the Illawarra’s only outcome based contemporary dance residency. We hope to increase access and exposure to dance as an art form, through presenting diverse and abstract perspectives.”

- Michelle Maxwell

uNCOILEd eXposed

By AUSTI. Dance and Physical Theatre

uNCOILEd eXposed is back following a prolific inaugural 2022 season!

Representing an unveiling of fresh choreographic talent, uNCOILEd eXposed features three unique pieces by local and NSW based choreographers as part of an experimental dance residency. Expect bold choreography that is thought provoking, and at times raw and emotional, performed by the strikingly talented AUSTI. company dancers.

19 – 21 Oct 7.30pm

Bruce Gordon Theatre

Illawarra Performing Arts Centre

Approx. 1 hr (no interval)

Recommended for ages 8+

Reserve your spot at merrigong.com.au/merrigongx

Photo by Children of the Revolution

Frumpus

Frumpus developed from the rich and anarchic Sydney performance scene of the early 1990s. Exploring ideas embedded in pop culture surrounding beauty and the grotesque, their frumpy red tracksuits and audacious silliness became a trademark for pushing boundaries, celebrating the underdog and puncturing ideals of female perfection.

Their shows, Strumpet, Runt, Crazed and Crazed 2, along with countless short works, have appeared at Performance Space, Carriageworks, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Festival, Melbourne Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne Festival, Gurlesque, Spicy Friday and ABC TV.

“We always want to mix joy and silliness with thoughts about unrealistic ideals of female beauty and perfection in popular culture. No-one really looks or acts like people in these images and we try to show the opposite - the daggy, uncelebrated underdog who ploughs on happily regardless.

Landed was first conceived in 2020 as part of The Flying Nun, a biannual showcase of contemporary performance work developed through performing arts residencies offered by Brand X at East Sydney Community Arts Centre.

It was originally inspired by luxury travel, particularly First-Class opulence and extravagant self-satisfied tourism. During its development, the pandemic stopped travel so the show became about wishful voyaging. We landed ourselves in empty city streets, bucolic countryside campsites and glamorous ocean liners where imagined travel was laced with excitement, fear and stalwart camaraderie.

Landed’s development with MERRIGONGX goes further, incorporating core Frumpus inspirations about portrayals and portraits of women, a lot of synchronised and grotesque slapstick and plenty of homemade and found props and film footage. We want people to have fun at Landed. It’s a hybrid of physical, visual and object theatre, an off-kilter, satirical and sometimes nonsensical casserole of buffoonery.”

- Cheryle Moore, Stephanie Hart and Lenny Ann Low

Landed

By Frumpus

Three shifty women, wordless but with plenty to say, take an unnerving and rib-tickling excursion into silliness and power play. Crashing to earth, camping under the stars, carrying a load of frothing tankards, Frumpus and their fanged sock puppets navigate anarchy and inanity, all for a great night out / time of your lives / actual salary.

2 – 4 Nov 7.30pm

Bruce Gordon Theatre

Illawarra Performing Arts Centre

Approx. 1 hr 10 mins (no interval)

Recommended for ages 12+. Reserve your spot at merrigong.com.au merrigongx

Photo by Lenny Ann Low

Alana Valentine

Alana Valentine is a librettist, playwright and director with a solid track record for making works about tragic public events in an evocative, dignified and deeply moving way. Dead Man Brake and Letters to Lindy, both commissioned by Merrigong, were enthusiastically embraced by local and national audiences. She recently co-wrote the oratorio WATERSHED: The Death of Doctor Duncan for the Adelaide Festival in 2022 and WUDJANG: Not the Past, co-written with Stephen Page and composer Steve Francis. Her new work is based on the 2014 Lindt Cafe Siege and the lives impacted by the tragic loss of Tori Johnson.

“My Beautiful Man is a play with songs which memorialises the sacrifice of Tori Johnson as seen through the eyes of his partner Thomas Zinn, his mother Rosie Connellan and the little boy Henry Hinchcliff, now sixteen years old. Since 2021 I have been conducting interviews with Thomas, Rosie, Henry and Mercedez (Henry’s mother) and I have their blessing and encouragement to undertake this project. Both Thomas and Rosie have been enormously supportive, speaking candidly and openly about their continuing love and grief, with Thomas even sharing with me the last text messages on the night of Tori’s death out of which I have started to respectfully write beautiful and haunting lyrics. The work chronicles the incredible outpouring of grief and pain by Australians and others in the days and years after the siege and ends with the gift of new life, given to Wollongong resident Henry in the form of a chocolate Easter egg, and lifts this act of kindness into a metaphor of hope for humanity in the face of trauma and loss. Tori, a bona fide 21st century hero, is gone, but his act of generosity lives on in Henry and all the other people who meet despair with love.”

- Alana Valentine

My Beautiful Man –Development Showing

By Alana Valentine

I chose you Tori and I never looked back I chose your beauty and I always knew that It went all the way through your body and mind And you my love were the greatest find of my whole entire life

On December 15, 2014 eighteen people were taken hostage in the Lindt Café in Sydney’s Martin Place. After a sixteen-hour standoff, a single gunshot was heard and police stormed the café. Tragically Tori Johnson, the heroic Lindt Café manager, lost his life that day, as did another hostage, Katrina Dawson.

Eight months earlier, a six-year-old Wollongong resident, Henry Hinchcliff, had travelled to the Lindt Café with his family and friends. Living with eosinophilic esophagitis meant Henry could only eat fifty types of food, including chocolate, but it had to be Lindt 85 percent cocoa and they didn’t make an Easter egg out of it. But in an act that his family recognised as ‘just the sort of kindness Tori would do’, the Lindt Café manager had offered to make Henry his very own, first-ever Easter egg.

In 2015 an inquest into the siege began, and the findings were released in 2017. In it, Tori Johnson’s partner of 14 years, Thomas Zinn and Tori’s mother Rosie and father Ken Johnson, a prominent Australian artist, spoke of their loss and paid tribute to Tori’s courage.

Sat 3 Jun 11am Main Auditorium | Wollongong Town Hall

Approx. 1 hr 30 mins (no interval)

Recommended for ages 13+

Reserve your spot at merrigong.com.au/merrigongx

Other Supported Artists

A range of artists will be working in our venues throughout 2023. Take a glimpse into the exciting projects they are working on across dance, theatre, music and more.

Bonnie Curtis

Bonnie is a multi-faceted artist driven by a curious imagination and a desire to discover. Subverting typical dance conventions, Curtis blends art forms to explore themes of women’s rights, disability, gender, sexism, body image, celebrity culture and social norms. GIRLS GONE WILD (working title) is a dark satire, ensemble dance theatre work dissecting sources of women’s anger through a post #MeToo lens.

The Corinthian Food Store

Public Access is a play about the role of public spaces in our ever-privatised society. It looks at the shifting harbours of knowledge and power, and the places we go to be seen and heard. It’s also about the right to take a shit in public... Written to be performed in libraries across Australia, Public Access is a fusion of movement, puppetry, music, clowning and text. The team includes writers Amy Fairall and Desmond Edwards, director Duncan Ragg and actor Anna Phillips, produced by The Corinthian Food Store.

Emma Saunders

Emma Saunders is a formidable Australian dance artist. WE ARE HERE - Gong is a new performance ensemble and professional development platform making hi-fi work in lo-fi ways. Led by Emma Saunders, works are made in collaboration with the performers.

Josh Hinton

Josh is an aspiring Wollongong-based actor, singer/songwriter and theatre maker. He is the coordinator and head tutor of Merrigong’s Creativity Camp. The Sultan’s Kitchen is a theatre work of vivid memory, cultural identity, music, and food that charts a journey of self-discovery which is uniquely personal, but universal too.

Vaguely Adjacent

Vaguely Adjacent is a new performance-based collective led by Nick Vagne, Sophie Florence Ward, Luke Standish, Lana Filies and Flynn Mapplebeck. Squatch Watch: LIVE is a comedy inviting the audience into the world of podcasters united by their obsessive fascination of sasquatch legends. The show pierces through the tongue-in-cheek, dubiously authentic world of the podcasters with a sincere excitement for the fantastical, the unknown, the niche and the weird.

Lucy Heffernan

Lucy is an actor, singer songwriter, playwright and theatre maker who graduated from UOW. Credits include Teen Angst (Shopfront Arts Co-Op), Single Asian Female (Belvoir St / La Boite Theatre Company), PARTY GIRL (MERRIGONGX) and more. A story for anyone whose had a pup, Dog People is a new play with music, examining the nature of love between man and man’s best friend... dogs are the best kind of people, right?

Kirli is a proud Gunai Woman, award-winning international writer, teacher, consultant, artist and a 2022 OAM Recipient. Going Home weaves fiction with truth, poetry with prose, language with land, and celebrates the strength, survival and warmth of First Nations communities.

Ali Gordon is a Wollongong based artist, clown, theatre-maker and director who creates theatre that has the power to transform her audience’s experience of the world. Art In a Box is a collaboration with a props maker to build a free-standing theatre where she becomes a piece of live, public performance art. This project extends theatre practice into the public realm to spread joy, surprise, fun and human connection.

Kirli Saunders

Catherine McKinnon & Aunty Barbara Nicholson

Catherine McKinnon is an award-winning writer of novels and plays. Storyland (co-written with Aunty Barb) explores the deep and abiding need humans have to find connection with each other and the land we live on. Aunty Barbara Nicholson is a senior Wadi Wadi woman from the Illawarra. While primarily a poet, she has also published academic writing. Barbara is active across the spectrum of Aboriginal disadvantage: education, criminal justice, land rights and the Stolen Generation. She was awarded a Doctor of the Laws (Honoris Causa) from UOW in 2014.

Rose

Maher

The Cardinal Rules, a reckoning with her Catholic upbringing, is Rose Maher’s debut solo work. This show is a collision of two unlikely forms, storytelling and bouffon clowning. It interrogates generations of familial obedience to sacraments, rituals and cannon law. Rose Maher is an actor, clown, puppeteer and performance maker. She has lived, worked and played on Dharawal country for over 10 years.

Ali Jane Smith is a writer with a strong practice in poetry and critical writing. She was co-writer of The Sirens’ Return, produced by Merrigong Theatre Company and The Society of Histrionic Happenings in February 2022. Ali participated in the online MERRIGONGX Digital Residency in 2020. Oh My Goddess is a one-woman show about a goddess who faces a decision that will change everything.

Bobby

Aazami

Bobby Aazami is an Iranian-American photographer, advocate, writer, and storyteller. He is the founder of Will Not Rest, which has the aim of raising awareness towards child sexual abuse prevention and empowering survivors. The Six Million Dollar Kid is an autobiographical traumedy that depicts one man’s 30-year attempt to find the superhero inside.

Karen Cummings & Benjamin Cauduro

Dr Karen Cummings is a broadcast and recording artist, new music specialist and composer who received her PHD in Microphone and the Voice in 2019. Benjamin Cauduro, known professionally as Benjamino, is an artist, producer, educator, and multi-instrumentalist. Singing Hidden Histories: Voices in the Abandoned Mine is a collaborative musical work that delves into soundscapes and pieces of local history that have been forgotten, or hidden.

Lily Hayman & Joshua Lobb

Lily Hayman is an emerging writer, director and performer who studied at the University of Wollongong. Her work Fledgling was presented in MERRIGONGX 2020. Joshua Lobb is an author and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong. Preparing for the Inevitable is based on Joshua’s short story of the same name. The story explores five moments of mortality, as people wait, poised, bracing for death.

Malika Reese

As a speaker, writer, musician and storyteller, Malika has been performing for over 20 years. She is Artist in Residence and celebrant at Tender Funerals, and co-director of Cocoa & Butter Productions. Her project A Gentle Talk About Death for Little Ones is a conversation about that which we cannot avoid, aimed for the young but resilient among us.

Susan Kennedy

Susan Kennedy has been a theatre maker since the 1970s. Her project Allusions uses dance / theatre / physical theatre to explore the disruptive influence of quixotic art forger, William Blundell.

Tegan Ware

Tegan Ware is an aspiring filmmaker, theatre director and writer based in the Illawarra. The stories that she captures are inspired by the heart and soul of people; their struggles and triumphs in life. Cicada is a gothic, non-linear theatrical piece that chronicles the rise and fall of a young artist.

Made From Scratch

The night where all creative endeavours take the stage! Made From Scratch is a multi-art form performance night offering artists space and support to test new ideas in front of a live audience. Here, experimentation is key and you get to experience a little bit of everything.

Wed 15 Mar, 7.30pm I Wed 28 Jun, 7.30pm I Wed 27 Sep, 7.30pm The Music Lounge, Wollongong Town Hall

Reserve Your Spot at merrigong.com.au/merrigongx

WHY MADE FROM SCRATCH?

Two artists on what Made From Scratch meant to their creative work:

“Not only did I get to show my work to an audience who are invested in the joy of new ideas, I also felt incredibly inspired by the variety of art forms and genres showcased. After performing in this space I felt energised to take my idea further, developing my show with MERRIGONGX and then performing a season of Dear Diary in May 2022. Made From Scratch was the start of that and I can’t quite believe what came out of it.”

- Kay Proudlove, Singer/Songwriter

“Presenting stuff that’s in progress is such a scary, but vital part of creating a new work. Made From Scratch gives you a stage, a plethora of accompanying artists and fantastic audience to test this content out. This great program provides a fun, safe and exciting platform to present your art and possibly lead to further developments down the line”.

- Nick Vagne (Vaguely Adjacent)

93 Crown will offer MERRIGONGX artists performance and rehearsal space to hone their craft, and develop new works of theatre that reflect the amazing stories and communities we know and love. Got an idea for an act? Contact artistic@merrigong.com.au

“In great news for local independent artists, thanks to Wollongong City Council, in 2023 they’ll have a dedicated space in the centre of town to meet, rehearse and perform. It’s temporary for now, but who knows…”

- Simon Hinton, Artistic Director / CEO Merrigong Theatre Company

93 CrownMerrigong’s Independent Artist Hub

SCWC / MERRIGONG PLAYWRIGHTS PROGRAM

Merrigong Theatre Company has a long history of developing and producing new work by Australian playwrights. Merrigong Theatre Company and the South Coast Writers Centre (SCWC) are both dedicated to leading from the regions and nurturing the next generation of creative writers and artists. For this reason, Merrigong and the SCWC have formed a partnership to invest in the next generation of theatre storytellers via a long-term development program for those with an interest in writing for the stage.

The 2023 SCWC / Merrigong Playwrights Program aims to create a space where writers are encouraged to develop their writing projects among a safe and supportive group of peers. Capped at 10 participants, this is a 10-month program that will run from March-November 2023. The group will meet monthly on Saturdays at Coledale Community Hall or one of Merrigong’s venues to workshop the participants’ plays in development. Over the course of the program, participants will also see and discuss five Merrigong shows and will learn from guest industry teachers. The program will conclude with an evening of readings from the works in development.

The group will be convened by Tom Peach, the ex-president of Stanwell Park Arts Theatre and an alumni of the Merrigong Playwrights Program.

This program is open to anyone aged 18 and above. We encourage applications from Indigenous Australians, people with disability, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, mature age workers and LGBQTI people. Participants will need to be members of the SCWC. We are committed to providing an inclusive culture and program where all our artists are valued and recognised for their unique qualities, ideas and perspectives.

For more information, visit southcoastwriters.org/playwrights-program

HOW TO ENGAGE

Merrigong is committed to supporting the development and presentation of the work of independent artists through new and established performance platforms and development opportunities.

Opportunities for independent artists / groups include:

• Presentation: funded and in-kind support for the production of new works with a presentation season

• Creative Development: funded and/or in-kind support for the development of new works with no immediate public outcome

• Development Showings: funded and in-kind support for the development of new works with a ‘work-in-progress’ public outcome

• Made From Scratch: our experimental scratch night of new work and new artists. Callouts for interested artists for our 2023 Made from Scratch series will be made throughout the year.

Artists and Companies with a connection to the Illawarra are encouraged to make an Expression of Interest through the MERRIGONGX application process. After consultation with the artists/groups, works are selected and curated by Merrigong’s artistic team, with the assistance of an external industry professional. Applications take place on an annual basis from July, with successful applicants informed in December.

Stay in the loop with all things MERRIGONGX by subscribing to our new Substack newsletter. Visit merrigongx.substack.com/

SHOW UP AND SUPPORT ARTISTS

There is no set ticket price at MERRIGONGX events. Instead, you simply reserve a spot, show up, then pay what you feel the performance is worth afterwards.

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RESERVE YOUR SPOT FOR FREE

Register and reserve your spot online.

COME SEE THE SHOW

You know how this works…

PAY WHAT YOU FEEL

After the show, we’ll send you an email asking how much you want to pay. You choose the amount based on your experience and your circumstances. There is no minimum or maximum amount.

Our company’s name ‘Merrigong’ reflects the Dharawal word for the Illawarra region’s distinctive escarpment, a landmark of supreme cultural importance. This name serves as a constant reminder that our venues rest on unceded First Nations land.

In all that we do, Merrigong Theatre Company seeks to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, seas and skies, and to show respect to all First Nations people who call our region home.

Venues

Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, 32 Burelli Street, Wollongong

Wollongong Town Hall, Corner of Crown and Kembla Streets, Wollongong 93 Crown Street, Wollongong

Thank you

Merrigong Theatre Company's major funding partners

Reserve Your Spot - merrigong.com.au/merrigongx

About the Artist

Clare O’Toole is a Wollongong based, multidisciplinary artist working primarily in painting and sculpture. Creating still life compositions from everyday consumer products, her practice draws from her own pantry, grocery stores, and specialty stores to populate works with iconic packaging of branded products. @clare.otoole

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